Call of Duty: Vanguard Reviews
Call of Duty: Vanguard is another solid entry in the popular franchise, but far from an excellent one. The campaign struggles in the story department, but a good base of multiplayer options and a fun, if underdeveloped, Zombies mode help save the day.
Despite its ups and downs, Call of Duty: Vanguard is a genuine Call of Duty game from start to finish and that means shooting is enjoyable, campaign is eye candy, multiplayer is still addictive and offers that feeling you rarely find in a competitive online multiplayer game.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Multiplayer is the only reason to play Call of Duty: Vanguard, thanks to substantial online content and a satisfying competitive pace. Both the zombies mode and the campaign are tiresome, clichéd, and mediocre, best left out of the history books.
After the disappointing Cold War, Vanguard was the game that many fans have put their faith in. But due to rocky start, the countless bugs the completely unbalanced multiplayer and the incomplete zombies mode, this year’s Call of Duty is just another nail in the coffin of once great franchise.
Call of Duty in its vast history has had ups and downs, but no installment has disappointed me as much as Vanguard.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The best multiplayer Call of Duty in years. Too bad the campaign is forgettable, and Zombies didn't get enough love.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign, all told, is pretty much standard fare. It’s by no means the best nor worst, but while it strives to do something different, it inevitably continues to just play things safe.
Vanguard is a work that the usual fans of Call of Duty will enjoy, but the lack of specific innovations and the lack of answers to some fictional ideas have made the game unable to be a suitable work for a wider segment of gamers.
Review in Persian | Read full review
With its limited content, Vanguard feels more like a by-product built to support Warzone than a real game.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
It may sound like we're being a bit down on this year's Call of Duty, but it's only because we know the franchise has potential. Warzone has proved it with multiplayer and Black Ops Cold War showcased it with its campaign. We hoped this would build upon those foundations, but instead it steps back into familiar territory. It's not a bad game by any means - in fact, even at its worst it's better than most first-person shooters out there - but as the games industry evolves, it's time for Call of Duty to bring something new to the table, and this isn't it.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a full CoD package with all the series' traditional modes, but with evident compromises made to release the game on-time. The campaign is short and not so memorable, the multiplayer has major balancing problems and several shortcomings compared to the other chapters, while the Zombie mode offers little bite. It's still a good shooter, but it lacks the punch and the breadth of content that distinguished the best episodes in the series.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Some could argue that wall running didn’t belong in previous entries, but they added verticality to gameplay, and made players look up instead of left and right. Vanguard lacks all originality, doesn’t improve in almost any areas, and goes down in quality.
Despite its impressive characters, Call of Duty Vanguard has an extremely ordinary story. Multiplayer modes are fun, but they do not feel like a new game.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Despite the relatively engaging campaign section and attempts to provide a different experience and narrative from World War II, unfortunately it does not achieve this goal due to its weakness in designing some steps and maintaining their attractiveness.
Review in Persian | Read full review
There are a lot of aspects of the game that I’m sure we will see future updates fixing, however, there are some that are wired into the game, especially in the campaign and Zombies that an update cannot fix.
For all its incredible characters and acting, Vanguard has somewhat confirmed that Call of Duty campaign modes are going in two very different directions: the stagecraft is getting better with each release, but the wider experience is going downhill.
Vanguard’s multiplayer offers only fleeting moments of fun right now, but its core issues can all be solved in time. Sledgehammer’s philosophy when it comes to maps and attachments means that, right now, you rarely get the optimum experience, but with dedicated spaces for competitive players it might well become the competitive Call of Duty game we’ve been waiting for.
As a huge multiplayer fan Call of Duty: Vanguard ticks all of the right boxes for me. It's chaotic and fast paced and besides some bugs that will surely be patched out, there's little to complain about. Unfortunately, the accompanying Zombies and Campaign modes are lacklustre and it is simply not worth buying the game for them alone.
All told, Call Of Duty: Vanguard has exceeded my expectations, especially after a less-than-promising pre-launch Alpha and press event. Then again, the Beta was drastically improved overall so I was already feeling more optimistic by launch.
While it adds some interesting new features to the Call of Duty formula, Vanguard's mixed bag of changes makes it a forgettable entry.